AntiVirusAdvice Articles

Prefetching 2

Administrator — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:54:54 +0000

If you've read our Prefetching article, you'll realize there's a lot of bad advice out there about prefetching. Well, there's actually more. There's bad advice out thereabout the /prefetch switch.

Windows puts /prefetch:[number] on media player links, where number is between 1 and higher number, depending on the link. Some places say to put it on all your links, some places say that's a media player only option, and they're both completely wrong.

Prefetching

Administrator — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:36:33 +0000

There's a whole bunch of pages out there giving incorrect advice about how prefetching works in Windows XP and what you can do to speed it up. They say to clean out prefetch folder. This is very bad advice.

Avoid

Administrator — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:08:38 +0000

There's plenty of good antivirus software out there, and there's plenty, that while not that great, will still protect you. There is, however, plenty that doesn't actually met what we would consider the minimal levels of protection.

Settings

Administrator — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:36:49 +0000

Antivirus setup is sometimes a very confusing place. And often things are turned on that you simply do not need.

Scheduling

Administrator — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:30:44 +0000

Scheduling antivirus checks and updates is something that needs to be done daily. People that use their computer for business or other serious applications need to schedule three things to occur overnight.

One, update the antivirus definitions from the software manufacturer. Two, scan the disk for problems. Three, defragment the disk using windows or some other defrag tool. Then the computer is in top operational performance when morning rolls around and you need to get going.

Installation

Administrator — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:23:15 +0000

Here's our recommendations before purchasing antivirus software, and during install.

Prevention

Administrator — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:44:52 +0000

The best way to prevent viruses, worms, and trojan horses from getting in is to run antivirus software.

Worms

Administrator — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:59:57 +0000

Most people use the term 'virus' to also refer to computer 'worms', which are executable programs that copy themselves from computer to computer using security holes. Most 'viruses' these days are just that, a worm.

'Worm' sounds a bit more innocent than virus, but the reference is to parasitic worms that live inside living things, not the ones living in the ground. Computer worms are close to them in that there will only be one copy of them, they are much larger, and they don't make other programs do they copying for them, but are full programs. These come in via open ports, which a firewall can help with, or malicious web pages or email messages, from other machines that are infected.

Viruses

Administrator — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:56:38 +0000

Computer viruses are pieces of code that attach themselves to other software. By analogy with biological viruses, they insert themselves into other programs, just like biological viruses to do to cells, and have the other program execute them. When executed, they replicate themselves and spread to other programs. These were the original computer threat, and have been around as long as programs have. They never spread beyond where they can see other programs, so the only way to get thems between computers is sharing files over the network or moving them around manually.

Trojan Horses

Administrator — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:53:18 +0000

Trojan horses are software you have to manually run, but do something malicious.

Spyware

Administrator — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:38:10 +0000

Spyware isn't viruses or worms, in that it generally won't copy itself to other computers, and it has a thin veil of legality in that you usually installed it, although you probably were tricked into it or it snuck in with some other program. Often it includes keyloggers or watch websites you browse, and it usually show ads. Basically it does whatever unethical thing will get the company that built it paid.

Sometimes spyware is installed on purpose, by other users of the computer, or on company computers. (There may be legal issues involved in removing the later.) The various governments sometimes also uses spyware, specifically keyloggers, to conduct legal 'searches' of computers, and there is a debate going on right now about whether spyare scanners should detect that. The debate was rendered mostly moot by heuristic scanners that detect all keyloggers.

Behavior

Administrator — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:13:30 +0000

You hear a lot about it, but you have to ask: So what, exactly does 'spyware' do?

It can do any of several different things. Software that does these things may also be called 'adware', and this sort of behavior is what the original 'semi-legit' unwanted programs did, although they have since expanded in disfunctionality.

System Restore

Administrator — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:14:53 +0000

System Restore lets you rewind configuration changes and other important system changes to your computer. (It does not let you rewind other changes.) It keep 'restore points' for the last couple of big changes, and makes new ones every 24 hours or so, when the system is idle. All well and good, but it sucks disk space in storing those.

Compressing files

Administrator — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:59:17 +0000

For a while, compressing files on disk was really popular, so popular that Microsoft built it into every operating system since MS-DOS 6.2. Basically, CPU time had outpaced disk size, so spending the time amount of time when loading the file was worth it. But it's not anymore...or is it?

Other Behavior

Administrator — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:16:31 +0000

But 'adware' is not all antispyware protects you from. No, spyware has a wide variety of malicious behaviors.

Prevention

Administrator — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:36:38 +0000

Prevention methods with antispyware software:

Uninstalling Programs

Administrator — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:47:43 +0000

Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Software, and remove stuff you don't want: Yes, obviously you don't need that 6 gig game you just installed, but often there are a lot of small things that get overlooked that can add up to a lot, and, incidentally, slow your computer down a lot more than the big things, because they load on startup and stay in memory.

Clearing Disk Space

Administrator — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:11:12 +0000

Computers end up with a lot of junk on them, just like the back seat of your car. (At least, the back seat of my car.) Sometimes you have to grab a trash can and start tossing stuff in.

Performance Options

Administrator — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:19:27 +0000

The 'System Properties' control panel has a lot of options.

Security Center

Administrator — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:56:48 +0000

Click on the Start menu, choose 'Control Panel', then 'Security Center'.This new feature in XP SP2 lets you see what Windows thinks is going on, security-wise.

If that works, and everything is green and says 'ON', congratulations, you're at least moderately protected. Otherwise, keep reading.